Trauma in First Person: Diary Writing During the Holocaust

This book examines diary writing by Jews under Nazi persecution during World War II. Amos Goldberg investigates how radical oppression affected the human psyche and inner life of traumatized victims across Europe—in towns, villages, ghettos, forests, hideouts, concentration camps, labor camps, and extermination camps. Jews of all ages and cultural backgrounds documented their experiences in writing. Goldberg argues that diary and memoir writing was perhaps the most important literary genre for Jews during this period. He analyzes the act of writing under extreme circumstances, drawing on diaries from both lesser-known victims and prominent diarists such as Chaim Kaplan and Victor Klemperer. Goldberg contends that understanding Jewish responses and resistance during the Holocaust requires examining them against the background of powerlessness and inner destruction that characterized the period.